Monday, February 27, 2012

Sunnyjane got us started this week with her post on Congress’ “obstreperous obstructionists.” Try to say THAT 3 times, fast! Her post includes some delicious snark as well as solid information about the Tea Party’s obstructionist agenda and some of its primary practitioners. These include Representative Webster, the “right-wing social engineer” who unseated one of Congress’ most progressive members, Alan Grayson. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin is another TP darling and recipient of the Koch Brothers’ largess; he is the architect of the fiscally unconservative budget plan that would actually result in higher deficits and less governmental services. This is the first in a series that will name names and put facts and faces together to more accurately portray what these Teabaggers are really doing. The quote from John Adams (1776) is worth repeating: “I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm; and that three or more become a Congress! And by God, I have had it withthisCongress!” Sunnyjane ended with a quote from one of my all-time favorite songs. (This video includes some excellent photos/footage, too – enjoy!)

Little did we know that this post on Frank Bailey’s unauthorized use of Sarah Palin’s emails would be just the beginning of another big email-themed week.Bailey was fined for his unauthorized use of emails that he received as a State of Alaska official.The tireless and fearless Andrée McLeod challenged the State’s handling of the information as privileged, since Bailey had broken confidentiality.My take: regardless of Bailey’s motivation, his book helped to shine some light on the dark secrets of Palin’s reign as one of the most incompetent, mean-spirited and mentally unstable politicians in the country.The post includes some of the juicy ;-) nuggets regarding Track’s parentage and Palin’s public spat with Newt.

Sarah Palin says she will not watch “Game Change” next week…hahahahaha!This post puts together trailers from the movie, along with some interesting interviews.My particular favorite is the one where Steve Schmidt corroborates key facts revealed in Game Change:she was a last minute, virtually unvetted candidate, chronic liar, knew nothing of the world, was unprepared and unable to cope with the pressure, and had two personalities (or more), including “the Other Sarah.”I guess this interview was his way of absolving himself from responsibility for having pushed for Palin as VP candidate. (Too little, too late.)

There was a big blogging party here, following the release of more of Palin’s emails (including some from Patrick!!).Major H/T to KatieAnnieOakley, HopeforAmerica. Older_Wiser, juicyfruityy, Silver_Desert, HonestyinGov, ProChoiceGrandma and many others who continue to do a great job cyber-sleuthing!

Who knew that Babygate would reappear this weekend?The new trove of Palin emails contains some new information about the investigation by the Anchorage Daily News to determine whether Palin in fact gave birth to Trig.The emails include one from reporter Lisa Demer, who asked some very straightforward questions; I am going to reprint part of it here so everyone can see that these are not really so “flippin’ unbelievable.”

Regarding the questions about Trig, it is within the governor’s power to put this to rest for most people. Maybe not all but certainly most reasonable people would accept a definitive statement from her doctor. If Cathy Baldwin-Johnson were given written consent to talk to me one more time about the birth, the questions that I keep hearing could be answered. The questions for the doctor: Did you deliver Trig? If not, who did? Who is Trig Palin’s biological mom and how do you know that?

Here’s one more request that might help. Would the governor make available a copy of Trig’s birth certificate? We could mention in our story what the birth certificate says.We’re also looking for explanation about the earlier medical history statement. That statement wasn’t direct enough for some people. There also is a side issue related to it. A simple explanation of how it came together, who wrote it, and why it was released so late on Election Eve would be helpful. Dr. Baldwin-Johnson could help on some of that. But that’s less important than the issue of Trig.

Does this sound like something that would elicit responses like “your inquiries about this are hereby permanently rejected” and “…we’re not going to let this evil stand”?

If everything were truly on the up-and-up, these inquiries could have simply been answered with little ado, and that would have been the end of the story.But no.Instead, attack-dog McAllister insulted Demer, threatened ADN and stonewalled the investigation.This is not the way someone acts when they have nothing to hide.This post includes some of the backstory, the Michael Carey interview affirming that the ADN newroom was well aware of the rumors that Trig was Bristol’s son, not Sarah’s.There are many links to a lot of the background information, going all the way back to the Palin’s Deceptions days, and the last update includes some of the key photos, proving that she was not “as big as a house” – that was just another Palin lie.

The new emails provide more interesting revelations about the reaction to Lisa Demer’s investigation into Trig’s birth.Palin and her staff went into crisis mode – which to them means attack mode – when Demer made inquiries about Bristol’s attendance at school.Staff immediately recognized that Demer was trying to put together a timeline of pregnancies, and was approaching ProvidenceHospital to obtain additional information regarding Trig’s birth.They chose to launch a pre-emptive strike – McAllister’s words.Why would anyone need to launch a pre-emptive strike, if they had nothing to hide?That is the key question.The answer is that they did have something to hide.The Babygate Saga continues… as it will do, until the truth is finally acknowledged.

The plot thickens.Thanks to Older_Wiser, we can now see that the Palins did not have a birth certificate for Trig, five weeks after the day his birth was announced.The State of Alaska requested documentation of his birth for his health insurance coverage to kick in, and from the emails, it is clear that 5 weeks after his reported birth, the Palins did not have a birth certificate for him. (Or, more likely, they didn't have one that named them as his parents.)

Some comments and links:

Indy_girl:".......Sarah Palin's reaction to the rumours in the emails quoted above isvery telling. If one of her secrets is brought up (and there are many of them), then she screams and rages until hopefully the whole affair will calm down again....."This is a very typical reaction for someone with characteristics of NPD, especially a pathological liar. They cannot STAND to be questioned, or to believe that ANYONE has the audacity to question THEIR version of events, even if they cannot provide any proof. Instead of rationally giving facts to support their side of the story, they erupt in rage, both in an attempt to intimidate the questioner(s) and in order to distract from the issue at hand.

SLQ:I can just imagine that conversation:Sarah: "DO something!!"Colberg: "Absolutely, we will take care of it right away. I just need to get a few facts, because we can prove they have made untrue statements about Trig's birth, and we can sue, because lying about a child's birth is probably malicious."Sarah: "Why do you need to know anything? He's my son. I said so."Colberg: "Well, we need evidence. A birth certificate? A photo of you in the hospital holding Trig? Or . . ."Sarah: "Never mind."

Enigmaplanner:Hell, JCos, Todd Palin owns a Maverick. It's a broken down piece of shit with dim headlights, a wrinkled rear end and no power! He calls it, Sarah.

Amy1:John McCain and his senior staff are the ones who would be the most damaged if the hoax were exposed and the electorate cared. They are the enablers (because surely they will not implicate the GOP folks above them who were also enablers, like Murdoch with his $7M cash transfer in the form of the book advance). Does anyone think for one moment that Steve Schmidt doesn't know everything we do, plus more? …

BanditBasheert:If you have never ever seen a pathological paranoid narcissist before, you've seen one now. When you read these emails, you can see everyone hiding under a desk, covering up anything and everything they knew she'd FREAK out about… they KNEW she was insane, inept, not dependable, and paranoid.

Mellybel said what many feel: Standing proud, Patrick. So glad I've been on board with you and your intrepid work.

Molly_WI:I noticed also, too, that SP is texting while she's driving, by her own admission. Fool.

Palinoia, who is very knowledgeable about health insurance, had some very interesting (long) comments on the question of coverage for Trig. Look at the Sunday comments to learn more.

Bell Peppery found this email, which proves that in December 2008, ADN was asking all the right questions; this certainly belies later statements by Julia O’Malley and others. (Later highlighted by Patrick in the Saturday post.)

We have been very busy this weekend. In two detailed posts which were "packed" with newly discovered material (read them HERE and HERE), we reported about the fact that Sarah Palin and her team did everything in their power to stop Lisa Demer's investigation into the rumours that Sarah Palin might have faked her pregnancy. Palin's staff couldn't present evidence in order to prove that Sarah Palin is the biological mother of Trig, but resorted to insults, obstruction and stonewalling in order to shut Lisa Demer up - a goal which they eventually achieved. It is almost a sensation that the emails include evidence that point directly to Bristol Palin being the real biological mother of Trig.

But there is much more. Again thanks to our reader Older_Wiser, we found a piece of information which could very well be one of the biggest breakthroughs ever in the "Babygate" investigation:

On 22 May 2008, about five weeks after the official birth of Trig, an email by the Alaskan Division of Retirement and Benefits suggests that the Palins did not have a birth certificate for Trig, but needed to request it.

This new piece of evidence is not immediately visible from the newly released emails. It now pays off that we are on the case together with our team and our readers for a very, very long time.

More than a month after the announced April birth, the state's Benefits division emailed Gov Palin reminding her "we have not received the dependent verification documents for your new child" and "please submit a copy of the child's Birth Certificate to us within 60 days of the date of birth." Her staff was sufficiently concerned to forward this as an urgent email to her husband's personal account. Her husband's email reply does not confirm that he has sent the certificate; he merely responds, "I called, thanks."

For some reason, verification of his birth even for insurance purposes required special handling.

This was all we knew about this issue - up until now. We would have given a lot to know what exactly Todd discussed on the phone with the benefits section! As the reader which was quoted by Andrew Sullivan also wondered: "Her husband's email reply does not confirm that he has sent the certificate."

Did he send the birth certificate? From a email which was included in the newest batch of the Palin-emails we now know: Most likely not. I am careful and only say "most likely", because in my view the wording of the email still leaves a little bit of room for interpretation. However, somebody with more intimate knowledge of these procedures within the State of Alaska might provide us with a definite conclusion.

The email I am talking about is the response which the Division of Retirement and Benefits sent to Todd apparently immediately after "Todd called them" - 2 1/2 hours after Todd received the email by Janice Mason on May 22, 2008.

"To obtain ordering information for the Birth Certificate, you may call the State of Alaska, Division of Vital Statistics at (907) 465-3391 or you may visit them on their website at:..."

Is this (final) proof that the Palins actually didn't possess a birth certificate for Trig? Why would this be included in the response if Todd didn't ask for this information? Or is this just "general information" that will be sent to everybody, even if they don't ask for it?

As I said, I am careful. However, one thing is clear: There is more than enough evidence already in the published emails to establish without any doubt, under any journalistic standard, that Sarah Palin and her team were involved in a massive-cover up to protect the inconvenient secrets surrounding the pregnancy with Trig (as we reported this weekend HERE and HERE). The exposure of these secrets would have certainly caused the destruction of Sarah Palin's political career - and this can still happen.

"The ADN wanted to know for the 96th time whether the governor was Trig’s mom."

Palin's spokesperson Bill McAllister now has a new suggestion - threaten the ADN to "cut them off" in a "high-level complaint":

"I think this warrants a high-level complaint. It has become an insufferable outrage. Mike, I recommend we ask for the
publisher to meet with you. If this continues, I think we have to cut the ADN off and tell the world why."

And:

"They’re not going to staff the session but they’ve got time and resources for this sleaze. We need to call them out for the
predators they are. I’d say they call this off once and for all, or no access at all ever again, and we make sure everyone
knows why. In my 30-year journalism career, I never pursued a story like this."

This is a pattern which is now all-to-familiar for everybody who followed Sarah Palin's career. If you question Sarah Palin, you are"sick" or a "predator."

This is most likely exactly what happened: The ADN backed down because Palin's staff threatened to cut them off - but in my opinion not with a direct, public threat, but with a subtle threat behind the scenes. I discussed the obvious reason for this decision in a post at Palingates in September 2009 - the ADN receives huge sums for advertising and printing from the State of Alaska each year (around $ 600,000). The ADN simply couldn't afford to annoy such an important customer, especially one with such a sensitive "boss" like Sarah Palin, who also unashamedly hinted to the ongoing financial troubles of the ADN in the email exchange with Pat Dougherty.

+++

UPDATE 2:

The post is just up for a few minutes, but we already received local knowledge!

Our reader and friend Phil Munger, who works as a professor at the University of Anchorage, lives in Wasilla and has his own blog "Progressive Alaska", has given us valuable first-hand information. He is exactly the right the person to ask, because his two children were delivered at Valley Hospital in Palmer, where Trig Palin also was supposedly born.

Phil says in our comments:

"My wife says ours, for kids born at Valley Hospital in Palmer in 1986 and 1989, were automatically mailed to us. Dr. CBJ was in on both those births, as the kids' doctor, subsequent to the delivery.
Looking at some of the paperwork, the costs of recording the birth with the authorities, processing it and getting it to us was included in the package we signed up for with the hospital through my wife's physician."

So it appears that the hospital would have been in charge of all the formalities regarding Trig Palin's birth certificate. But from the above email exchange with the Alaskan department, we can clearly see that it didn't happen like that when it came to Trig Palin, although his official mother was the Governor, the most important person in Alaska. What went wrong, Sarah...?

+++

UPDATE 3:

At this memorable weekend, the bubble finally burst. Conversations which have been "top secret" for years finally come to light, and the participants will not be happy about that.

But this is not meant to be, which is a very good thing in my opinion. The transparency we have been looking for, finally, here it is, with one big blow.

Pat Dougherty reveals in this email exchange "off-the-record" his true thoughts about the Trig-issue:

If there were such a thing, I think the judgment of your office to go after the Daily News on
this Trig stuff would constitute malpractice. At a minimum, it was a big missed opportunity
for you. I would have liked nothing better than to drive a stake through the heart of this
stupid conspiracy. The proponents have been writing me obnoxious and insulting emails
for four or five months. I’m fed up.

But I wash my hands of the matter. Apparently we’re all doomed to listen to this nonsense
for months, maybe years to come.

I can understand why you would be upset with the paper now, But someone in your
position has to have the long view. Sometimes we’re your best friend, sometimes we’re
your worst nightmare. Your job is to get the most of the former and the least of the latter.
Right now, from where I sit, you’re taking the Murkowski approach -- minimize the former,
don’t affect the latter. That’s not the winning formula.

"I think the judgment of your office to go after the Daily News

on this Trig stuff would constitute malpractice."

Then a sentence which became so true that Pat Dougherty should be appointed the official Alaskan fortune-teller:

"Apparently we’re all doomed to listen to this nonsense for months, maybe years to come."

Yes, Pat, but only because the ADN dropped the matter - a decision which heavily impacted the lives of many people, including ours. I don't want to sound harsh, but I have no sympathy with Pat Dougherty whatsoever. His decision to drop the matter enabled Sarah Palin to start a national political career after the last presidential election, in which she bitterly divided the USA like virtually no other US politician in living history.

Palin-biographer Joe McGinniss: "I think the Politicalgates archives are the best single available resource for anyone wondering why questions are still being asked about Sarah really being Trig’s birth mother." (from August 28, 2011)

Download the research paper regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy and the role of the media, written by Brad Scharlott, Associate Professor for Journalism at Northern Kentucky University - CLICK HERE.

Read the old post at Palingates about the faked pregnancy with the pictures still intact in hardcopy HERE.Read the old posts at Palingates onlineHERE (useful also for watching the video clips which were published with the posts).

WATCH: Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy, an open secret in Alaska. Interview with Michael Carey, journalist with the Anchorage Daily News, from September 2, 2008.

In addition, please don't hesitate to watch the excellent video-documentaries about "babygate" which our reader Lidia17 created - HERE, HERE and HERE.

We break the "Spiral of Silence" - Read the details about the "biggest hoax in American political history!"

For more stunning revelations, see also our follow-up post:Sarah Palin's spokesperson Bill McAllister wants to "cut the ADN off" if they continue to ask questions about Trig's birth, and ADN-editor Pat Dougherty's harsh reply to Bill McAllister: "The judgment of your office to go after the Daily News on this Trig stuff would constitute malpractice." Also: An Email exchange suggests that the Palins didn't have a birth certificate for Trig five weeks after Trig's birth.

+++

ADN-journalist Lisa Demer was more than a nuisance, she was a threat to Sarah Palin.

The newly discovered email-exchange shows that the Palin-camp was virtually in shock about Lisa Demer's investigation into Bristol Palin's dealings - and it also shows that Palin's staff knew very well what is was all about, despite Sarah Palin herself "playing dumb":

"It sounds like they are putting together a timeline of pregnancies."

gasped Palin-aide Sharon Leighow, and she was talking about Bristol here, not Sarah!

Again there is extensive evidence that Sarah Palin and her camp feared nothing more than an investigation into the "pregnancy rumours", that Palin couldn't provide evidence that she birthed Trig and that instead her team tried to do everything possible to suppress and stop the investigation.

If this story continues to be ignored by the Alaska media, if the ADN, Alaska Dispatch, KTVA, KTUU etc. still refuse to touch it, than this would be shameful for journalism in Alaska.

What is striking from this email exchange is that Sharon Leighow especially knew exactly how damaging Lisa Demer's investigation could be. Not only did she realise that Lisa Demer was putting together a timeline of Bristol Palin's "pregnancies" (PLURAL!), but she also said straight away: "I am sure a very unpleasant article is in the works." Well, what would there to worry about if everything is just fine with Bristol?

For those readers who are not familiar with all the complex details of the investigation into Sarah Palin's pregnancy, the established facts about Bristol's school attendance are still rather sketchy, but highly suspicious.

Bristol Palin lived in Juneau, Alaska's capital, until about June 2007. From June 2007 onwards she worked at the Nordstrom's Coffee Shop in Anchorage, as we know from Bristol's old myspace comments. These myspace-comments also gave us fascinating insights into the "real" Palin family life like "tracks little bitch ass decided to tell my parents im a stoner" (April 18, 2007) and "haha, my mom was asking me who i was on the phone with last night, and she said she heard everything i was saying...now she thinks i am pregnant" (May 14, 2007).

She then apparently moved back to Wasilla and attended the High School there in autumn 2007, but rumours persisted that she was not attending classes and was out of school for months. In January or February 2008, she "appeared" at Anchorage West High, and she didn't look pregnant at this point in early 2008.

"Jibegod", as we found out later when we checked this information, belongs to a politically connected family in Anchorage, and he appears to be a very intelligent person who wouldn't just make stuff up. On April 8, 2008, he posted the following on "reddit":

Cover-up? Alaska Gov. Palin (R) announced she was pregnant. Local rumors suggest she is covering up for her 16 y/o daughter.

On March 5th, 2008 Alaska's Republican Governor, Sarah Palin, announced to the media that she was 7 months pregnant with her 5th child. She is currently 44.

The controversy arises from two sources: First, Palin does not appear preganant in any recent photographs. The announcement came as quite a shock to people who had worked closely with her, and have been quoted as saying that she did not appear pregnant whatsoever during the prior 7 months. While this is debatable, you can judge for yourself here: http://gov.state.ak.us/photos.php

Second, Palin's daughter Bristol is 16 and attends an Anchorage high school. Students who have attended class with her report that she has been out of school for months, claiming a prolonged case of mono.

Apparently, this rumor has made the rounds in the upper echelon of the Alaska legislature, and is a closely guarded secret. As far as I know, this rumor has not been discussed by any media outlets, in Alaska or otherwise.

The points here are based mostly upon hearsay, and I'm not trying to destroy an innocent family. However, a Republican politician hiding a pregnant teenage daughter seems rather newsworthy.

The post by "jibegod" confirms that there were persistent rumours that Bristol was out of school for months, and that Bristol was pregnant, but it also adds to the confusion, because when it was posted in April 2008, Bristol was already "back" and attending classes. However, "jibegod" apparently didn't attend Anchorage West High together with Bristol, so it is understandable that his information is not 100% precise. In his defense, nobody has been able to establish a clear record of Bristol's school attendance from summer 2007 to spring 2008 up until today. This is exactly the record that Lisa Demer tried to research - and her inquiries immediately made her a target for hate for the Palin-camp. If there was no reason to be worried, there is also no reason to "launch a pre-emptive strike." It's that simple.

From our own inside information we know that some of Bristol's former friends in Juneau were aware that she was pregnant in 2007 - and that it was virtually impossible to contact her after summer 2007 any more (Bristol's myspace messages which the Palindeception team uncovered also end in June 2007). We also know that a leading Republican politician in early January 2008 confirmed in a confidential conversation that Bristol is pregnant.

Is there anyone left in Alaska who actually has still possesses journalistic integrity and will report about this?

Apart from this, anyone else in the USA media?

Sarah Palin and her team knew that it would be the end of Palin's career if a hard-hitting and well researched story about the fake pregnancy rumours would be published in the ADN. They reacted with threats, propaganda and obstruction. This strategy has never changed. It's now finally the time to end this charade once and for all.

+++

"Babygate" has been covered in more detail in previous posts. You can find all this information here:

Download the research paper regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy and the role of the media, written by Brad Scharlott, Associate Professor for Journalism at Northern Kentucky University - CLICK HERE.

Read the old post at Palingates about the faked pregnancy with the pictures still intact in hardcopyHERE.Read the old posts at Palingates onlineHERE (useful also for watching the video clips which were published with the posts).In addition, please don't hesitate to watch the excellent video-documentaries about "babygate" which our reader Lidia17 created - HERE, HERE and HERE.

We break the "Spiral of Silence" - Read the details about the "biggest hoax in American political history!"

+++UPDATE:

Thanks to our friend Irishgirl we now have some additional curious information to add. According to the following email sent to Sharon Leighow by Carol Comeau, the Anchorage School District Superintendent, Bristol Palin enrolled at West High on January 7th 2008 and withdrew on May 7th 2008. Comeau refused to answer a further enquiry by Lisa Demer who wanted to know the exact date that Bristol left the school. Reading between the lines we can assume that Bristol actually stopped attending West High before her official leaving date and that is why Comeau has refused to co-operate with a very frustrated Demer.

Palin: "And lisa doesn't need to know any of this, of course, but I think we have the right to know what the heck she's trying to piece together on her fishing expedition"

Palin's response which has been highly redacted is even more curious. What exactly is it that Palin does not want Demer or indeed the public to know about Bristol's attendance at West High? And why was this information redacted? Enquiring minds want to know.

We have a surprise: The latest batch of emails from Sarah Palin's administration which were released on Thursday proved to be far more interesting than expected. After the last large batch which was published in June last year, and which received huge media attention, some sort of "consensus" was reached in public that Palin's time as the Governor of Alaska now has been sufficiently examined, and that no more ink should be wasted. However, such a notion would seem to be premature, as this is an exciting new development.

The first surprise is the much higher number of emails which have been published now in comparison to the last batch: In June 2011, 24,199 pages have been released by the State of Alaska. This time, 34,820 pages have been released.

This new approach, as I would call it, pays off for anyone who is interested in the truth about Sarah Palin. In addition, we have the emails which were published by Frank Bailey in "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin", and they sometimes tie in nicely with the emails published by State of Alaska.

I can only cover some of the most important emails in this post. There is simply too much material, and we will have more time to report about the emails in the future. First of all, let's get one piece of disinformation out of the way, which is now being repeated again as a "mantra" by the Palinbots - and also uncritically being reported by large parts of the media:

It it simply untrue that Sarah Palin was forced to pay the costs for her legal defense against the ethics complaints herself, was forced to "bankrupt her family" and was subsequently driven out of office, as Palin herself claims in an email from January 2, 2009. This often repeated myth can easily be debunked with hard evidence.

When Sarah Palin's first legal defense fund, the "Alaska Fund Trust", was declared unethical by the state-assigned investigator Tim Petumenos in June 2010 after an ethics complaint by Kim Chatman, Petumenos published an extensive report, and for the first time the following was revealed in public: The State of Alaska offered to pay for the defense against the ethics complaints, and even entered into a contract for legal services with Palin's lawyers, for an amount "up to $ 100,000 at public expense." This would have given Sarah Palin enough resources to mount a solid defense, but as investigator Petumenos notes: "No invoices were submitted."

The reasons for this untypical behaviour by Sarah Palin are completely unclear. The lawyers claim that it would have been "too difficult to separate the functions of representing Governor Palin in her official capacity in the pending state-related matters, and representing her in other related campaign or partisan matters beyond the scope of the state contract." This explanation is nonsensical, as every lawyer knows who has ever invoiced billable hours.

Let's now take a closer look at emails related to Sarah Palin's pregnancy with Trig - an issue which should now receive new attention in the media again, because the newly published emails prove again, more than ever, that Sarah Palin was unable to offer any proof for her pregnancy with Trig and that she and her camp resorted to stubborn stonewalling and even insults in order to suppress the investigation by ADN-journalist Lisa Demer in late 2008.

It should actually come as a surprise to the readers of the Anchorage Daily News that Lisa Demer was trying to do a thorough job when it came to investigating the fake pregnancy rumours in late 2008 - because the readers of the ADN were never told about this in any detail.

As it now turns out, Lisa Demer was asking the right questions, and addressed them to the right people - and received a furious response from the Palin camp.

Could you ask the governor if the family will send an announcement to the Daily News when Bristol’s baby is born? That would be helpful. There has been worldwide attention on this pregnancy, which Gov. Palin herself announced. This is the next chapter in the story. There’s a spot on the governor’s official Web site about Trig. Is this that different? Regarding the questions about Trig, it is within the governor’s power to put this to rest for most people. Maybe not all but certainly most reasonable people would accept a definitive statement from her doctor. If Cathy Baldwin-Johnson were given written consent to talk to me one more time about the birth, the questions that I keep hearing could be answered. The questions for the doctor: Did you deliver Trig? If not, who did? Who is Trig Palin’s biological mom and how do you know that?

Here’s one more request that might help. Would the governor make available a copy of Trig’s birth certificate? We could mention in our story what the birth certificate says.

We’re also looking for explanation about the earlier medical history statement. That statement wasn’t direct enough for some people. There also is a side issue related to it. A simple explanation of how it came together, who wrote it, and why it was released so late on Election Eve would be helpful. Dr. Baldwin-Johnson could help on some of that. But that’s less important than the issue of Trig.

Thanks for whatever you can do.

Regards, Lisa

Exactly, Lisa! Did Cathy-Baldwin Johnson deliver Trig? If not, who did? Who is Trig Palin's biological mother? What does his birth certificate say? Why was Cathy-Baldwin Johnson's statement released so late on Election Eve? Can we have a definitive statement from Palin's doctor, please?

Aren't these simple, easy questions? The matter could be settled within a day, and we could all forget about it!

We "Trig Truthers" have never asked for anything else - and have never ever received an answer!

Lisa Demer, as it turns out, never received an answer either.

Instead, Sarah Palin's spokesman Bill McAllister replies to Lisa and starts to insult her - in an apparent attempt to fob her off and shut her up, and ends with saying that he expects a "sweeping apology" from her as the only possible reply:

Lisa,
Allow me to intervene in a completely off-the-record way: I never anticipated the depths of sleaze that your paper would come to countenance. That the governor would have to prove maternity to you is perhaps the most despicable idea ever peddled by an organization that once had Pulitzer Prize status (and that now won’t even staff the legislative session). This is a disgrace, an outrage and a damnable injustice. Stop forcing us to spend state time to respond to this trash. We will not participate in your continued self-debasement as a news professional. Your inquiries about this are hereby permanently rejected, and your arrogance will have us discussing if we want to have anything to do with the ADN at all. Do not reply, unless it’s to offer a sweeping apology.

Off the record,
Bill

The inquiries "are hereby permanently rejected" - problem solved!

Sarah Palin also wonders what to do now - after all, the birth certificate couldn't be presented, as it wouldn't show what it's supposed to show, and medical records or other hard evidence are also not available, so what else is there left to do to suppress the inquiry by the ADN?

Flippin ridiculous. My doctor (CBJ, she delivered Trig and served on our Health Care Council and was named America’s Top Family Physician a few yrs ago) called Todd to give me a message requesting that I call her tomorrow - to discuss "a phone call she received from Lisa Demer at the ADN"! Sheeeesh, this is one busy doctor and she has to continually be bugged by media about this ridiculous issue?

Maybe we can be clever about this and use the opportunity to point out how wacko some media outlets have become. If you can think of anything clever, let me know.., we’ll do it. I’ll even do a press avail on it, if need be.

Short of producing the photos that Bristol took of me having Trig (and it’ll be over my dead body that they’re released without major photoshopping done first), I don’t know how else to prove I gave birth to Trig. CBJ has testified, she’s released my health records summary.., what else does it take.

Bristol "took photos of me having Trig"...? We never heard this before - or afterwards. This is an obvious lie, a desperate claim by Sarah Palin in order to convince also her inner circle that there is nothing suspicious about her pregnancy with Trig. Interestingly, Sarah Palin made a similar desperate false claim in December 2009 when she suddenly claimed on a radio show in December 2009 that has "provided Trig's birth certificate" - despite the fact that nobody can be found who has seen it. Lisa Demer certainly hasn't seen it!

How about I call a press availability tomorrow and on your behalf say we won’t dignify these questions and call out by name the reporters pursuing them? We can talk about the doctor being harassed, AP trying to implicate you re: racist e-mails by a few state employees, and much other garbage. And we could announce the new website critiquing the media. Will this make them back off? No, at least not entirely. But right now we’re in an ax fight without an ax. Let’s at least demonstrate publicly our pride and honor that we’re not going to let this evil stand.

Now, we could go sarcastic, with a presser in which we acknowledge that Bigfoot is a member of your Cabinet who has counseled predator control and that you are really the descendant of Anastasia, who survived the execution of the czar, s family, proving that not only can you see Russia but that you’re actually from there, and that you’ve got all of Imelda Marcos’ shoes plus Michael Jackson’s white glove. And then we can ask the ADN reporter why they’re not covering session.

There are a number of ways we can handle this. But let’s go.get ’em.

"We are not going to let this evil stand."

Well, yes, Bill, you have to let this evil stand, because you cannot present any proof that Sarah Palin is Trig's biological mother - so the only way out would be smears, attacks, threats and propaganda, as it seems, and that's exactly the route that the Palin camp chose.

The published emails also contain the complete exchange between Sarah Palin and ADN-editor Pat Dougherty, which he had published on his Editors Blog at the ADN in January 2009. This exchange is always worth to be revisited. Despite that fact that none of Lisa Demer's question were answered, the Anchorage Daily News dropped the matter. I discussed the obvious reason for this decision in a post at Palingates in September 2009 - the ADN receives huge sums for advertising and printing from the State of Alaska each year. The ADN simply couldn't afford to annoy such an important customer, especially one with such a sensitive "boss" like Sarah Palin, who also unashamedly hinted to the ongoing financial troubles of the ADN in the email exchange with Pat Dougherty.

These days, Pat Dougherty is keen to claim that "the story of persistent rumors does not interest him any more than President Obama’s birth certificate conspiracy." However, with the decision to let Sarah Palin off the hook despite not having answered the questions by Lisa Demer, Pat Dougherty put the reputation of his newspaper at risk, and it's safe to say that this reputation remains permanently damaged. We have seen too many emails by Sarah Palin and her staff stonewalling all questions about Sarah Palin's pregnancy, also in the book "Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin" by Frank Bailey (even more in the leaked manuscript of the book), when even immediately before and after the official birth on April 18, 2008, Sarah Palin freaked out about the faked pregnancy allegations and the allegations that Trig is Bristol's child, but could provide no proof to the contrary.

When it comes to the ADN, one also shouldn't forget the memorable interview that ADN-columnist and former editor Michael Carey gave on September 2, 2008 - explaining that the faked pregnancy issue was intensively discussed within the ADN and that he has a friend, a "smart lawyer", who told him that the rumour about Palin's faked pregnancy was "the absolute truth":

There will be more to add to this in the future, but right now I would like conclude this post with a very surprising "personal" discovery, because in the published emails, a few of my very own emails are included as well. This brings memories back from a time "long gone", when Kathleen and I were members of the Palindeception research team. A lot has happened since that time, and I had pretty much forgotten about these emails, but the "reactions" I caused and didn't know about until yesterday are still very relevant.

So how did my emails end up in this batch? Well, the funny things is that I didn't even directly write to the State of Alaska - but to "factcheck.org" in the first place. I complained to them about an article by factcheck.org which is still online, called "Muting the Mommy Melodrama." In this article, factcheck.org tries to debunk the fake pregnancy rumours with a piece of evidence which mysteriously appeared on August 31, 2008, right at the start of Palin's VP campaign: A picture uploaded by an anonymous user called "erik99559" to flickr. This picture was apparently taken on April 13, 2008, just five days before the "official birth", and shows a pregnant looking Sarah Palin.

This photo - click on it for high resolution:

There was much speculation about this picture in our research team as well as on the Palindeception Blog.

Audrey from the Palindeception Blog, who ran this website which has been dormant since summer 2009 and started the public investigation into Sarah Palin's pregnancy with Trig, instructed a photo forensics expert to make an examination of the so-called "Gusty picture", which had mysteriously appeared on flickr on August 31, 2008 (and was online for about one year, before it was deleted from flickr).

By the way, I never received a response from factcheck.org. They don't seem to bother much about facts at all, and the thought that a person who fakes a pregnancy HAS to look pregnant AT SOME POINT obviously never occurred to them.

This report found it's way into Sarah Palin's email imbox, because I copied Andrea Gusty's station in (11 News KTVA), who actually received the email and then later replied to tell me that KTVA will broadcast a TV-report about these pictures. This report:

For the record: I don't believe any more that the photo from April 13, 2008 is "fake", and that the report from the forensics expert is accurate. The report was severely impeded by the fact that the original digital picture was not available. The photo was bad quality. Digital photo forensics are a very tricky business, and for years already I have been convinced that the picture was indeed taken on April 13, 2008.

The only thing what really matters in the great scheme of things is the fact that this picture was conveniently uploaded on August 31, 2008 to flickr by the photographer Daniel Erik Carpenter from Bethel ("erik99559", with 99559 being Bethel's post code) - who even identified himself in one of the pictures. It was the public "proof" for the pregnancy that Sarah Palin desperately needed - and it served its purpose. No further proof was needed, certainly not a birth certificate - because suddenly, there was the pregnant looking Governor, right in front of our eyes...

As you can see in the email exchange, I then answered Andrea Gusty again, and I was cheeky, because I also copied in Bill McAllister in. I guess I wanted to annoy him a bit. Little did I know that I also managed to annoy the Queen herself!

Not just one, but two responses by Sarah Palin have been recorded, after she received the email exchange from Bill McAllister:

"Just fyi, I guess. Our press office has to deal w this again today? Geez."

This "new" attitude, "gotta' embrace it", is actually exactly the approach Sarah Palin displayed later in several speeches when she mocked the "Trig Truthers" (after we still didn't shut up), for example a speech in Waco, Texas on September 14, 2010 (a speech in which she suddenly discovered that she "had the baby in Anchorage"):

But there is another important point to make about this email exchange. As you can see from the headers depicted above, Sarah Palin also forward this email to Talis Colberg, who was the Alaskan Attorney General at the time.

That is a strong claim - and Sarah Palin saw it, the Alaskan Attorney General saw it, Bill McAllister and all the others saw it - already in January 2009. Despite this fact no lawyer EVER contacted the "Trig Truthers" and asked for a retractions of this serious claim. We repeated this claim many times in our posts, and there was just a big, long silence.

But we know the reason for this, we know it already for a long time. Sarah Palin has no evidence to prove that she is Trig's biological mother - because she isn't. From excellent inside information coming from the "upper echelons of society" in Alaska as well as a mountain of evidence we know that Sarah Palin is not the mother. We knew this already in January 2009, and that's why I felt perfectly safe to make this claim in my email. I am a lawyer myself and have worked as a trial lawyer in Germany in the past, I do know that it would be a bad idea to carelessly libel a public figure. But we never libelled anyone. We just write the plain truth, and in return, the liberal media loves to call us "conspiracy theorists."

But we are not conspiracy theorists. We know that Sarah Palin is not the biological mother of Trig, and that she has no proof for her pregnancy. She is a liar, and a very successful one, who has the benefit of being surrounded by a team of people whose main purpose apparently is to spread propaganda and cover up her lies.

On March 4, 2008, her close aide Sharon Leighow just heard the news about Sarah Palin's pregnancy (one day before the official public announcement). Sharon Leighow has an appropriate response to the news and writes to Sarah:

"And kudos on being a master of disguise!"

However, Sarah Palin is not happy at all about this remark, and writes back, providing the most ridiculous statement ever about her pregnancy (just next to her statements "Bristol took pictures while I delivered" and "I provided Trig's birth certificate"):

"Thanks! And "master of disguise"?! Ugh- I’m big as a house. But glad about it!"

So let's take a closer look at Sarah Palin, the "house." But first let's look a the pictures from the day when Trig was officially born - the April 18, 2008. KTUU presented their readers and viewers exclusive pictures of Trig, taken on April 18, 2008:

Download the research paper regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy and the role of the media, written by Brad Scharlott, Associate Professor for Journalism at Northern Kentucky University - CLICK HERE.

Read the old post at Palingates about the faked pregnancy with the pictures still intact in hardcopyHERE.Read the old posts at Palingates onlineHERE (useful also for watching the video clips which were published with the posts).In addition, please don't hesitate to watch the excellent video-documentaries about "babygate" which our reader Lidia17 created - HERE, HERE and HERE.

We break the "Spiral of Silence" - Read the details about the "biggest hoax in American political history!"

What matters to us is the truth

"The chief thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbors it where it finds it. And another thing: the truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side."-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in a letter to Johann Peter Eckermann, December 16, 1828

Sensational revelations in the "Trig emails" about Sarah Palin's pregnancy

POST 1 - CLICK TO READ: Lisa Demer, journalist at the Anchorage Daily News, asked all the right questions about Sarah Palin's pregnancy with Trig, and asked directly for Trig's birth certificate - but was met by stonewalling and insults from Palin's staffPOST 2 - CLICK TO READ: More discoveries in Sarah Palin's released emails: Palin's team wanted to launch "pre-emptive strike" against ADN-story about Palin's pregnancy, was shocked that Lisa Demer tried to put together a "timeline" of Bristol's pregnancies and contacted schools and hospitals

POST 3 - CLICK TO READ: Newly released email suggests that five weeks after Trig's official birth, Sarah Palin didn't have a birth certificate for Trig

- UPDATE: Palin's spokesperson wants to "cut the ADN off" if they continue to ask questions about Trig's birth

- UPDATE 2: ADN-editor Pat Dougherty to Bill McAllister: "The judgment of your office to go after the Daily News on this Trig stuff would constitute malpractice"

Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy

Download all posts by Politicalgates about the faked pregnancy as PDF-document HERE.

Palin-biographer Joe McGinniss: "I think the Politicalgates archives are the best single available resource for anyone wondering why questions are still being asked about Sarah really being Trig’s birth mother." (from August 28, 2011)

We break the "Spiral of Silence" - Read the details about the "biggest hoax in American political history!"

Commentary at "The Guardian"

Commentary at "The Guardian" (UK) from April 28, 2011, written by Kathleen Baker, editor of Politicalgates, about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy: "Sarah Palin, unreliable narrator"

How she got away with it

How Sarah Palin finally got away with the Trig pregnancy hoax, despite a mountain of evidence: Read this overview

Download Sarah Palin Trig pregnancy research paper

Download the research paper regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy and the role of the media, written by Brad Scharlott, Associate Professor for Journalism at Northern Kentucky University - CLICK HERE.

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In dubiis libertas,

Liberty in case of doubt,

In omnibus caritas,

Charity in all things.

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